Live Cruise Reports

 
We fly to Fort Lauderdale dark and early tomorrow morning on Air Canada and will enjoy some time relaxing at our hotel before we board the ship. We have booked a Crown Loft Suite for the first time which puts us in Sky Class for the first time. We're all looking forward to trying out some venues that we couldn't access before.
 
This will be our second time on Allure and we can't wait to see what adventures are in store.

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My wife and I booked this cruise last Autumn, but it was recently cancelled and we were rebooked on Scenic Jade from Amsterdam to Budapest, departing August 17.
 
We flew British Airways from London Heathrow to Amsterdam on an early flight, which meant leaving home at 04.00. Now that we are Scenic Platinum we are entitled to free transfers from our home in Dorchester to any airport. The journey was quick and being BA gold, we could check in at the First Wing, which meant were soon in the lounge having breakfast with champagne.

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There are always a lot of reasons to not cruise.  Take a look at the checkbook balance, or the family calendar.  However, inspired by @MeganGC1983 the idea is to go anyway. 
 
New Orleans is our closest cruise terminal, and is still a long drive.  Airports, airplanes, lost luggage and air rage are a no.  (And day of cruise flights- eeek).  The Valor is lovely, but I am not a fan of the ports.  If fares keep going up seven day runs, a back to back on the Valor would be a plan.   Once you have been to Europe, one is forever spoiled.  I like the alternative "eastern" run- the Bahamas are nice, and the extra sea days are a plus.  Key West has a great dining spot- the Southernmost Beach Cafe, where you can pretend you are in the Bahamas 🙂  And the Key Lime pie is amazing and you can find Key Lime jelly beans which are addicting.  I was hoping the free trolley was still running. 

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Ds and I will be sailing this weekend on freedom of the seas on a quick 3 nighter Bahamas getaway.
 
This was a comped cruise through casino royale, upgraded from an ocean view to a balcony for about 350 including port fees which seemed like a no brainer.
 
This will be my first cruise with the key and more importantly my first cruise as diamond. Hope you all join along and feel free to ask questions along the way! 

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Time for a spot of vacation! Flying L.A. to Boston Thu morning @ 0830 Hrs. on an American Airlines A321. Should take us about 5 hrs. or so (5 hrs. and 7 minutes) to get to Logan Int'l Airport. Spending Fri exploring bean town via the Boston Trolley. A pre-anniversary (our anniversary is Sat, the 13th) dinner at Ruth's Chris on Fri evening.   Sat; we take a ride to Black Falcon cruise terminal to board Holland America Line's Zaandam, the one with the big Pluer Band organ in her atrium. What follows is a seven-day New England/Canada cruise up north with stops in Baah Habaah, Maine and five Canadian ports: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sydney, not Australia, but Nova Scotia, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, a hook shank left up the mighty Saint Lawrence River, a stop in tres merveilleux la Ville de Québec, and a final stop in nearby Montreal where we exit Zaandam stage left on Sat, 29 Aug 22. We're spending an extra day in Montreal before trucking home on Sunday, the 21st. Should be a nice one! Follow along with us if you dare! 😉 

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I made it to LaGuardia on my early morning flight. It left Raleigh around 5:30 and made it to the gate around 7:20. It was a great flight, only half full. I had a seat with no one beside me. My luggage was waiting for me at the luggage carousel. There were a half dozen Princess reps there as well. Another half dozen have shown up since.
 
We are waiting for the shuttle buses to start taking passengers over to the terminal. The supervisor is emphasizing to the other employees to tell passengers that we're better off here than waiting over there.
 
The itinerary for the cruise is three ports in Canada and three in Greenland and lots of days at sea. It's a 16-day cruise. We will stop in Halifax and Sydney on the way to Greenland and St. John's on the way back. The three ports in Greenland are Nuuk, Nanortalik, and Qaqortoq. I've only been to Halifax out of these ports, so the rest will be new to me. 

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Well I like to do some Live froms, but we knew this had to be a Live from loading the washing machine back home given the internet in Norway.  Nevertheless here goes with our reflections and pictures.
 
Our departure was from Dublin, a beautiful city I regret to say even though it is an hour away by air we had never visited before.  Therefore we did all the usual things
 
On our first day we used the Green hop on hop off bus complete with (very amusing and slightly non politically correct) live commentary from the drivers.  We bought a two day pass which was only 5 euros more than a one day pass so a no brainer.  The start point for the Hoho was opposite our hotel so it was ideal for getting a good seat each day.  We  stayed in the Holiday Inn Express Dublin City Centre and it was excellent, lovely big rooms, reasonable included breakfast and very friendly staff at a good price.  As there is a taxi stand outside on the corner it was also very easy to get to the ship.

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Join the Bird for a short break to the Western Caribbean, featuring port calls in Harvest Caye and Cozumel on the Norwegian Breakaway. This is the Breakaway’s final cruise of her Caribbean season, lasting only 5 days. This allows 2 days to reposition the ship from Miami to New York, without passengers (can you say Crew Party!). Once back to her home of New York, the Breakaway will begin a fall season cruising to New England and Canada. 

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Day 1 / 29 - Amsterdam (embarkation)
 
Welcome back fellow travelers!  We are now onboard the RSSC Navigator. 
 
The embarkation process was painless or at least it seemed so when we were finished. We can’t complain and to spare you the details from leaving the hotel at 11:18 to the pool grill with champagne at 12:10. Yes, painless. 

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Hello everyone! Following @steve4031 lead and thought I’d trip report some from the Koningsdam this week. Happy to try and answer any questions. If I can post some cruise daily info, will do that as well! 
 
Just got on to the ship after a nice stay last night at the Pan Pacific. This is our first cruise post-Covid and thus we treated ourselves and are staying in a Neptune suite. 
 
We did all the advance stuff - Check-in online, Verifly, two different ArriveCAN submissions. We had a 10:00am check-in time (had never had one that early) and really it was a breeze. We arrived at maybe 10 after the hour and by approximately 10:45 we were all done and in the priority area for boarding. They didn’t start boarding until 11:30, so we just sat for quite a bit, not sure why 10:00am call time if not starting board to 11:30, but no worries.

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Our flight left on time tonight and we are over Arizona heading to Boston for our 24 day Circle Iceland cruise – round trip from Boston.  After one night in the Hampton Boston Seaport, we will head over to the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal and board the ms Nieuw Statendam.
This cruise has 17 port days and only 7 sea days.

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Ok, about the cruise. We will be sailing the Harmony of the Seas, our second time on this lady. This is our (wife and I) 8th cruise since the restart. It is our annual August bring-everybody-onboard cruise. Our two kids, their spouses and the two grandsons. We will be staying in the 4-bedroom Villa Suite and look forward to everyone having their own bedroom. Previously we have done the 2BDR Aquatheatre Suite, which has a great view, great balcony, great living area, but not great bedrooms and bathrooms. Our genie is Raj, for those who keep track of those things.

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Hello all! I'm so excited about this upcoming cruise that I decided to start a Live From thread. I know the internet is really poor as we cruise north but I will do my best to post my first experiences of Alaska. 

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This will be our second attempt at our first  B3B.   Earlier this year, we had to cut our vacation short because  we tested positive on the last day of the 2nd leg.   We missed the Norwegian Fjords but this cruise may make up for it.
 
The first two cruises are a B2B Transatlantic from Port Liberty to Reykjavik, Iceland and Back to Boston.  The final one is a New England and Canada cruise.  We will visit many of the ports twice and a couple 3 times.   It allowed us to plan something different on the duplicate ports.

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My goal with this "Live from" thread is to provide an Aqua passenger viewpoint where my DW and I will be dining in Blu every night, going to the evening shows, attending any interactive game shows designed to make us laugh and, of course, going on some pretty cool cruise-sponsored excursions. However, I promise you will not be seeing any pictures of food or pictures of the evening menus as that's just not my thing.

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This is my first blog of a cruise, actually it's my first cruise in general as my original one booked for June 2020 we all know what happened there so I will do my best for reporting back on my thoughts (just may not be as good as Charla or Jim). This is just me going, husband is a home body, has let his passport expire (I'll be sorting that out when I get back) and also with four dogs one with epilepsy so it's hard to have others look after them.

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Greetings from Oslo. It took 2 days and three legs for us to get here. All went seamlessly. We apparently traveled in an alternate universe of no lines and uncrowded airports. Even our bags were at the hotel before we arrived. The dreaded Heathrow was a delight. Polaris lounge had plenty of seats.
Minor hiccup, no airport transfer from Seabourn showed up at OSL. Fortunately taxis at Oslo are easy.

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Now that the Internet here is finally working decently (maybe because we’re near the US coast), I can finally do a “Live From…” review.
 
DW and I are recent Medicare qualifiers, first-time Cunard cruisers, but over 35 cruises in total on RCI, Princess, Celebrity, AMA, and Silversea. Today is the last full day of the cruise to NY and the first one with decent Internet, hence this review.

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Story time. 
 
Condensed Version. (aka crib  notes). 
 
This  will be our 9 th sailing on ALLURE.  WE will be celebrating our 31 st wedding anniversary. 
 
Due to circumstances beyond my control (smart phone and computer illiterate) this is my second attempt. 
  
The following cruise story will include dialogue with pictures. So sit back, relax and 🐝 entertained as I take you along. 

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Hello CC community,
 
This will be our return to cruising after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the seas, and I try to celebrate our long awaited vacation on NCL Escape with a live report.
Still hoping to catch an upgrade, but in any case we are perfectly fine with our booked Club Balcony Suite already, and excited to hit the Med from Civitavecchia to visit around the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini, Athens/Piraeus, and then to head to Malta/La Valetta, before touring along the Italian coast, stopping at Sicily/Messina, Naples and Livorno.
7th time with NCL, first time on the Escape, and a big fan of freestyle cruising.
Pre-booked the Vibe Beach Club on board, plus the perks provided by the promo package.
 
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Welcome to my return to cruise reporting in the new world!🥂
 
On this cruise, DH ( DJ’s DH) and I will celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary, his belated-by-a-year 60th birthday, his so called “retirement” and my 60th birthday. Since he “retired” in March 2021 he has been teaching full-time at our alma mater (We Are ... Penn State) as well as consulting internationally for the automotive industry. His area of expertise … Supply Chain … I kid you not.

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And I'm back.  Yes, same ship, almost the same itinerary.  However different people, and different room category.
 
This thread should have been Live from the Eclipse 8/02/2020.  We all know how 2020 went, so it's been lifted and shifted twice.   And at last, we're going.
 
My sister and I do a Caribbean cruise every summer.  We started in 2017, and alternated Eastern and Western.  In 2019, I suggested we go to Alaska, and we booked the Eclipse for the same week (first week August every year).  A couple of months later, our friends Mike and Kathy decided to book with us. So our group is me, my sister Beth and Mike & Kathy who have shown up on my live froms before.  We're all arriving today, with M&K this morning and me and Beth tonight.  She's on her way from New York, and I'm at SFO waiting for my flight, and chatting with my assistant waiter from last cruise on Facebook.

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We're off again to cruise on the Nieuw Statendam from Boston to Canada, Greenland, and Iceland and return to Boston for most of the month of August.  These ports are all new to us and we're once again really looking forward to this trip. We have a few shore excursions booked, but primarily we want to walk and visit the local ports we stop at.
 

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Precruise July 27-July 30 
Voyager July 30-Aug 11
Post cruise Aug 11/12 Copenhagen
 
We are a 40 year married couple in our early 60s that have cruised on Regent for 130 nights (and many other cruise lines). Regent has always been our favorite cruise line and we are excited to be back on board the Voyager. This cruise was a rebook twice due to Covid. We love the line so much we did a future cruise credit rebooking so they wouldn’t have to refund us during those tough times in 2020 when so much money was being returned. That Future cruise credit enabled our 14 day Caribbean Splendor cruise in Feb. I’ll post that link shortly. 

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With all of the Princess doom and gloom I have been reading in the past few months, thought I would share some positive news about our current cruise.
 
We are only a few days in of our British Isles cruise but we are having a blast.  Here are some quick thoughts:

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